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Five great tools for making music on your laptop
If you’re a musician, scraping together thousands of dollars to book studio time to record your first single feels as old-fashioned as sending faxes or being able to afford your own home. With a sufficiently powerful laptop and the right tools, producing professional tracks at home is easier than ever before.
While some people prefer to make music on desktop setups or even using rack-mounted hardware, I love the freedom that comes with being able to make music on the go. Spending dead time like train journeys to create new sounds and finesse existing mixes enables me to be far more productive than if I could only produce music when chained to my desk.
More importantly, producing on your laptop makes things far easier when you’re ready to start performing live. You can pack the heart of your setup in a backpack and have your entire catalogue of music on the go with you, meaning you can just add additional hardware as you need it.
So, for me, a laptop is the obvious choice when I’m producing new tunes, but what do you need to start making your own tracks?
Fortunately, we’re in a bit of a golden age for music tools. Even compared to when I first started producing music a few decades back, affordable tools for making music on your laptop are everywhere and are increasingly capable of helping you achieve studio quality results. While the sheer breadth of options out there can be a little overwhelming at first, I'm marking TechRadar's Content Creator Week by sharing a few options that have helped me produce better music from my laptop.
1. Ableton Live 12
The first tool you’ll need for making music on your laptop is a good digital audio workstation (DAW). Your core music-making environment, it allows you to create MIDI patterns, record and manipulate audio samples, structure your tracks, add samples and even mix and master your finished pieces.
There’s a reason Ableton Live is a go-to for so many music producers, amateur and professional alike. When I first used it 20 years ago, I immediately fell in love with how easy it made my music-making workflow. Handling audio is a breeze – it’s always been way ahead of the competition when it comes to manipulating the pitch and warping of samples. And its dual Arrangement and Pattern views mean I can easily flip between track structuring and live performance with zero boundaries.
I’ve also always been consistently impressed with the innovative features Ableton has been added to over the years. Not only does it come with a huge array of built-in samplers, synthesizers and effects but newer features like the ability to convert the notes and rhythm of audio samples to MIDI clips add whole new ways for me to generate ideas and create motifs across instruments.
And, like most DAWs, it’s almost infinitely extendable with your own plugins, meaning you’ll continuously be finding new ways to use it.
2. Roli Equator 2
If you’ve come across Roli, you probably most associate it with its innovative music hardware like the multidimensional MPE Seaboard 2 or the theremin-esque Airwave spatial expression controller. But you really shouldn’t sleep on its software either, as it offers some excellent tools for making music on your laptop. Case in point: buying Roli’s Equator 2 software synth has totally transformed my music production.
The most attention-grabbing feature of Equator 2 is definitely its MIDI polyphonic expression (MPE) synthesis. A whole new frontier in music making, MPE allows you to use compatible midi hardware to unlock new dimensions of expression out of your playing.
Pair Equator 2 with a device like the Roli Seaboard M and you can modulate various parameters in the software by sliding up and down a single key, striking a note, gliding between notes, applying variable pressure to a key or lifting your fingers off at different speeds. This makes performing and creating music far more expressive than ever before.
But, for me, it’s the way Equator 2 handles more traditional functionality that makes it so versatile for music makers. Every element of its samplers, synths and effects can be automated by its envelopes, LFOs, macros and multi-mods, making it easy to create complicated production chains that continuously evolve throughout your tracks.
Even compared to popular favorites like Omnisphere or Serum, I’ve never found a synthesizer that’s capable of the sheer flexibility that Equator 2 offers.
3. Loopcloud
I’ll be 100% honest here: one of my least favorite parts of music creation is stressing about rights management.
Sampling can add enormous variety to the music you create, allowing you to innovate and blend all kinds of influences and textures together into something utterly unique. But when you’re not yet making money for your music, having to seek permissions and lay down hefty royalties for any samples you use just isn’t economical.
Royalty-free sample packs are the obvious solution, allowing you to add elements to your tracks without all the admin or having to pay ongoing fees. Unfortunately, they aren’t always cheap, quality can be really mixed and far too often I’ve found myself dropping 50 bucks on a pack that has only a handful of samples that actually fit what I’m working on.
That’s why Loopcloud has proven to be an absolute game-changer for my music production. Based on a subscription model, it costs me $7.99 / £5.99 per month and I get 100 credits to spend across its entire library of samples. You can dip into and out of thousands of packs, picking up only the samples you like, and once you’ve downloaded them, they’re yours to use however you like.
But it’s Loopcloud’s software that makes it truly trailblazing. It integrates right into your DAW and you can load it as a plugin, meaning you can preview each sample in the context of your current track. It allows you to tweak the sample’s tuning and playback speed.
My favorite feature? You can cut and edit the sample while browsing, reverse sections and even apply effects to see how it’ll sound in your production chain. Loopcloud has totally super-charged my sampling workflow and I low-key love it.
4. Kontakt 8
If you’re serious about adding a wide variety of sounds to your music, I’d say it’s inevitable you’ll download Kontakt at some point. Native Instrument’s virtual instrument platform, it’s basically the lingua franca for third-party virtual instruments, enabling you to buy convincing digital replications of real instruments from a broad range of developers across the internet.
There really is a whole world of instruments out there that Kontakt can unlock. Just recently I bought both Stradivari Violin, an organic, fully expressive violin synthesiser, and Noire, a full piano sample library recording directly from pianist’s Nils Frahm’s gorgeous concert grand. Both are exquisite, adding a whole level of control I can’t get out of samples, and yet I don’t have to try playing real instruments with what my old music teacher, Mrs Mellinger, calls my ‘stupid fingers’.
If you’ve got the cash, I’d recommend picking up the full version of Kontakt 8 for $299 / £269 – it comes with a whopping 900 instruments packaged in and NI’s new hybrid sampler / wavetable synth Cornflux.
Only want to buy a few virtual instruments? Psst, I’ve got a secret for you… you can also run them on the completely free Kontakt 8 Player.
5. Izotope Ozone 12
I’m far from the only music-maker to observe this but turning a fully structured track into a polished final recording is easily the most difficult part of creating your own music. Balancing all the competing frequencies in your pieces, ducking clashing instruments and creating a loud and dynamic sounding overall mix all takes a lot of expertise and experience. I spent many years dissatisfied with the end results and wishing there was an easier way.
Well there is. Izotope Ozone 12 is a comprehensive suite of mastering tools that make achieving lush, professional sounding tracks far easier even without access to a full studio setup. Ever since I first started using it, the quality of my finished tracks has improved exponentially.
The full package is so crammed with amazing tools that it’s hard to pick out just a few favorites. I love using its Impact tool to give percussion a bit more cut-through in the mix, or its Vintage Tape tool to give me that warm, rich feel as though a track has been mastered on reel-to-reel. Meanwhile, Dynamic EQ allows you to apply selective filters to certain frequencies based on their volume, while both the Vintage Limiter and Maximizer tools give you great ways to get sufficient loudness out of your whole track without squashing their dynamic range.
Honestly, my favorite part of music-making has now become sticking on a big slab of Izotope mastering plugins on an already polished track and hearing it turn it into a thick, rich finished recording. It makes all that effort worth it and has turned mastering from something I dread to something I delight in.
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